The present invention concerns the provision of security to computing devices and pertains particularly to providing password protection which utilizes a variable master password.
In many computing devices it is desirable to prohibit access by utilizing passwords. For example, in some phone systems available from Siemens Rolm Communications, Inc., having a business address of 2205 Grand Avenue Parkway, Austin Tex. 78728, configuration data is protected through a customer-defined password mechanism. However, a customer may forget the chosen password and thus not be able to change the configuration of the phone or access the functions protected by the password.
Various schemes have been considered to allow a customer to recover from the loss of a password. In one scheme, the customer calls a technical support number. The technical support representative provides the user with a master password which is effective for the phone model. The customer then uses the master password to change the configuration of the phone or access the functions protected by the password. The master password is also used to program a new password which the customer will remember.
One problem with the use of a master password which is effective across a phone model is that once the master password becomes known to users, this renders password protection compromised and thus ineffective.
Alternatively, each individual phone could have its own master password. When the customer calls a technical support number after losing his or her password, the technical support representative asks for the serial number of the telephone. The service representative then consults a list of all serial numbers which includes corresponding master passwords.
One problem with the use of a personalized master password for each individual phone is the extra cost required to program each phone with its own personalized master password. In addition, if any portion of the list of personalized master passwords is lost, then there would be no way to unlock the pertinent phones.